Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, Virginia
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Alberico, Robin Benke, Gene Damon, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Doug Hurd (UVA) and Kathy Perry (VIVA). Absent. Eileen Hitchingham, John Ulmschneider, and Karin Wittenborg.
I. Minutes of the December 6, 2001 meeting.
ACTION: The December 6, 2001 meeting minutes were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Chair's Report (Ralph Alberico)1. LAC Advocacy
The LAC Advocacy committee was very active during this quarter. They met with Nancy Cooley, the SCHEV Director of Academic Affairs on January 18, 2002, they met with a legislator and 2 legislative aides on December 8, 2001, they developed and staffed an information booth in the General Assembly Building on January 17-18, they provided access to the VIVA resources for all General Assembly members during the legislative session, and they communicated with VIVA library directors and key players in the budget process regarding the status of various funding amendments.2. VIVA Budget (Kathy Perry and Gene Damon)
Kathy reviewed the status of the VIVA funding proposal. Although the SCHEV staff and the SCHEV Council endorsed the VIVA proposal for additional funds, the Commonwealth's current fiscal crisis changed the outlook for the VIVA proposal.
No final figures were available at meeting time, but in preparation for possible budget cuts and attendant purchasing power reductions, Kathy presented 3 likely budget scenarios she and Gene had developed:
- If the base budget is completely restored and no cuts were made (the House amendment), there would be a $740,000 purchasing power shortfall in the biennium due to contractual obligations, vendor cost increases, and enrollment growth.
- If the budget is reduced by $213,135 in each year of the biennium (the Senate Amendment), there would be an anticipated need to cut a total of $940,000 in the biennium.
- If a compromise bill averages the two, we could see a possible compromise of $106,568 cut in each year of the biennium, resulting in anticipated service cuts totaling $544,987 in 2002-03, with another $295,000 in service cuts required in 2003-04.
The Steering Committee discussed the three assumptions used in considering VIVA's budget cuts and the attendant purchasing power reductions. (1) Cuts are inevitable. Even if our base budget is restored, we will have to make budget reductions next year. (2) VIVA's work needs to continue despite the budget cuts. As we have in the past, each activity will be scrutinized to determine whether or not it is absolutely essential to VIVA's mission. If a task is agreed upon, then it should be supported. (3) All Budget Areas are to be examined. During the 2000-2002 biennium, VIVA's funds were allocated in these proportions: Collections 88%, ILL 7%, Travel and Training 1%, and Central Administration less than 4%. Although the vast majority of our funds are in the Collections area, we need to look at all areas of the VIVA budget for possible savings.
ACTION: The Steering Committee affirmed the 3 basic assumptions regarding the overall VIVA budget considerations:
- Cuts are inevitable even if VIVA's base budget is restored.
- VIVA's work needs to continue despite cuts in the base budget and the purchasing power.
- All budget areas are to be considered for cuts although budget cuts will not be made across the board.
All areas in the VIVA budget were reviewed.
a. ILL allocations represent 7% of the total VIVA biennial budget for 2000-02. Of that, the money for the ILL clerks at the doctoral institutions is not under VIVA's control. Further, the funds have not been increased since 1994 and those positions currently subsidize those positions. For these reasons, these funds were not considered for reductions. The remaining $225,000 is for ILL document delivery express mail reimbursements. Although the total number of items moving through InterLibrary Loan has increased by 27% from 1996-97 to 2000-01, the total amount available for allocations has not been increased at all over the years. In fact, the amount per item has actually decreased over the years, from $11.08/item in 1997 to $8.67 in 2002.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously agreed that no budget cuts are to come from the current ILL allocations.
b. Travel and training funds represent less than 1% of all VIVA funds. Kathy stated that committee work and statewide meetings are essential to VIVA's success. The standing committees have been asked to evaluate the number of meetings. Administering partial reimbursements for meetings might be more cumbersome than full reimbursements.
ACTIONS: The Steering Committee affirmed that in our decentralized organization structure, face-to-face committee meetings are essential to VIVA's work. The Committee Chairs are to continue evaluating the value and cost efficiency of all meetings (committee and statewide) to reduce costs wherever possible. The Steering Committee unanimously approved coverage of 100% of travel costs (within state guidelines) for all standing committee members (both public and private) and all ad hoc committee members (both public and private) deemed essential to VIVA business. Further, VIVA will continue to support 100% of travel costs for any statewide meetings deemed essential to VIVA's mission during this critical time period. The Steering Committee also approved VIVA's continued presence at ICOLC meetings.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously voted not to convene the VIVA Users Group meeting at VLA in 02-03.
c. Central administration costs, representing less than 4% of VIVA's total budget, were discussed briefly. There was recognition that the central operation is very lean and that any savings in that area have always been applied to the VIVA collections budget. Further, it was pointed out that if the total VIVA budget is reduced, the percentage allotted to Central administration will appear to increase even if the total dollars were not increased.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously voted not to reduce the budget for Central Administration.
d. Collections represent 88% of the total VIVA budget. The Committee discussed the issue of the Pooled Funds for the VIVA private schools. Under this program, the private schools receive $250,000 in state funds that they currently match with $125,000 from their local funds. The Steering Committee affirmed the value of the private schools as members of VIVA. There was consensus that there may be additional reliance upon their print collections during the next biennium.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously voted to maintain the $250,000 of the state match for the privates' Pooled Funds and not to reduce it.
Gene presented 4 basic assumptions the Resources Committee had developed for the preliminary budget reduction discussions. In addition, the Steering Committee was asked to weigh the relative value of full text vs. indexes and abstracts.
ACTION: The Steering Committee affirmed the 5 basic assumptions regarding the VIVA Collections Budget:(i) We will prefer to retain content at the expense of convenience, even if this means reducing ports or switching databases from one vendor to another if we can license a database at a lower cost.
(ii) The vendor's performance, service and availability of statistics will be important considerations on product retention.
(iii) "Near redundancy" in databases will not be supported.
(iv) We will try to minimize the impact of a cancellation for as many institutions as possible.
(v) The Steering Committee decided that we would value Full Text over basic indexes and abstract services.
Gene reported that with the purchase of Academic Press by Elsevier, the IDEAL product will no longer be available for consortial subscription. The Resources for Users Committee recommended that VIVA notify Academic Press that we are canceling our contract at the end of the calendar year. The Steering Committee discussed this recommendation and the assumption that we may need to follow up with legal support if we have difficulty obtaining the archives for the VIVA shared collections subscription period, 1996-2002.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Resources for Users recommendation to notify Academic Press of our intention to cancel and our willingness to enforce our contractual right to the archive for our subscription period.
Gene reported that the OVID Review Team has reported preliminary findings to the Resources for Users Committee. Due to potential costs savings and current management issues, the Resources for Users Committee recommended putting the OVID contract out for RFP this spring. The proposed plan will allow VIVA to have the new service(s) in place for the fall semester, with estimated costs savings realized during the 2002-03 fiscal year. There was broad awareness of the potential disruption to the VIVA members if a major restructuring of the OVID contract takes place. This disruption would go beyond the change in the VIVA OVID subscriptions, more than likely also affecting many local subscriptions to OVID databases. The Steering Committee requested efforts to negotiate with OVID t realize improve service and pricing.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved preparations for an RFP for the entire OVID contract pending further negotiations with OVID. Kathy Perry will follow up with a proposal for that meeting and will report back to the Steering Committee. [Note: Negotiations with OVD proceeded smoothly and it does not appear that VIVA will have to do an RFP this summer.]
Gene reported that RUC continues to look at all other options for further cuts. Reviews are still underway in a number of areas, including FirstSearch and HighWire subscriptions. He warned the Steering Committee that initial reports of FirstSearch pricing for next year indicate extraordinary price increases. In light of this, Committee members are reviewing the FirstSearch content with an eye to possible deletion of some FirstSearch databases and reducing the number of ports available. The review of HighWire journals is nearly complete. Recommendations will be made to the Steering Committee when the reviews are complete.3. Ad Hoc Task Force on Technical Issues. Ralph reported that Elaine Day has agreed to chair the ad hoc Task Force on Content Linking for Electronic Serials and Other Digital Materials. In order to keep the working group manageable and keep the travel costs reasonable, she will appoint a committee five other people (Glenn Bunton (ODU), Linda Carder (Lynchburg), Mary Ann Chappell (JMU), Leslie O'Brien (Va Tech), and Gary Stottlemyer (UVA-Law). She will work with the following people as consulting members: Rae Ellen Best (GMU-Law), Amy Boykin (CNU), Deanna Chavez (RMC), Liz Linton (SBC), Katherine McKenzie (W&M), and James Redwine (Hollins). The task force had submitted an action item regarding their meeting travel expense, but the Steering Committee determined that the task force travel is to be considered essential business travel and will be supported, so the allotment did not require a vote. The Committee encouraged Elaine to use the "consultants" as much as necessary for this task. Because of a delay in starting this work, the Committee will be granted additional time to accomplish the task. A decision on the statewide meeting to disseminate the findings will be deferred until the task force has had a chance to begin their research.
B. Director's Report1. FirstSearch - RILM. Kathy reported that RILM was no longer available as a "per search" database on FirstSearch. The Steering Committee voted via email on January 23, 2002, on whether or not to continue that database for the time remaining before the June 30, 2002 contract expiration.
ACTION: Steering Committee approved the continuation of the RILM through June 30, 2002.
2. Procurement for the VIVA Private Members. Kathy reported that the 32 VIVA private schools currently participate in a total of approximately 550 VIVA subscriptions. The ad hoc VIVA Procurement Task Force (John Jaffe, Lis Chabot, and Kathy Perry) met with Iris Moubray, Ada Strickler, Wayne Durrer and Lisa Wight on February 25 to discuss issues involved in having JMU handle all of the VIVA procurements for the private institutions in addition to handling all VIVA procurements for the public institutions. The group agreed to the following:
- John Jaffe will continue to coordinate the privates' subscriptions, including reviewing vendor invoices for accuracy.
- The private schools will be billed for their service fees at the beginning of the fiscal year.
- The fees will be based on the amount of money expended the previous year, whether or not they increase or decrease their "elective" subscriptions throughout the 2002-03 year.
- A minimum service fee of $100 will be charged of all participating schools.
- The VIVA Director and the JMU Procurement Officer will work with the vendors to have all renewal cycles match those of the public institutions by the end of the 2002-03 fiscal year.
- JMU Procurement will not be asked to handle any resource not part of a VIVA contract.
- JMU funds will not be needed to cover the costs of the VIVA private schools.
- The VIVA Procurement task force will review the process at the end of the year to see if further efficiencies can be made to the process.
Following that meeting, Wayne Durrer, Director of JMU Procurement, reported on March 6, 2002, that JMU is willing to undertake this new effort beginning this spring. Kathy reported that If the plan is acceptable to the Steering Committee, Lis Chabot (Mary Baldwin College) will present the report to the VICULA members at their meeting on March 27, 2002.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the plan to move all VIVA procurements for the private institutions to the JMU Procurement Office. Ralph will write a letter thanking Sweet Briar College for their past support of the VIVA private institutions and thanking John Jaffe for this willingness to continue coordinating these procurements. Kathy will write a letter to JMU thanking them for their superb procurement support and their willingness to accept this new task.
2. VIVA Brochure: Kathy reported that the VIVA brochures have been distributed to the member libraries and there have been requests for additional brochures. The Gale Group is again willing to print these brochures at their very favorable printing rates for us. She recommended that the brochure be slightly revised and that another 5,000 brochures be printed for use this next year.
ACTION: Funds were approved to reprint an additional 5,000 copies of the new VIVA brochure.
3. AMS Journals: Kathy reported that the AMS Journals contract was delayed while she discussed the need for statistics. The press release will be released when the contract is signed.
4. Britannica Online: The Britannica Online contract was delayed in negotiations between Solinet and Encyclopaedia Britannica. The press release will be released when the contract is signed.
III. COMMITTEES
A. Outreach Committee. Connie reported that the committee met in January and will meet again in late March. Planning for the Information Literacy Regional Meetings was postponed until VIVA's budget situation could be determined. The committee plans to continue their work on revising the VIVA web site.
B. Resource Sharing Committee. Kathy reported that the RSC met on January 11. The ILL Community Forum will be held June 28, 2002 at the University of Virginia. The committee had identified several adjustments to the preliminary plan to realize cost savings. The Steering Committee affirmed the importance of this meeting. No further action was necessary since the meeting had previously been approved.
Kathy reported that the committee will review Interlibrary Loan data, will bring the ILL FAQ up to date, and will assess technology offerings for unmediated and peer-to-peer ILL capabilities. She shared the committee's goals and objectives with the Steering Committee.
The ILL bookmark draftwas reviewed. Due to the budget situation and possibility of service cuts, it was suggested the bookmark not include the list of VIVA products. Funds for the bookmark were previously approved and no further action was needed.
C. Resources for Users Committee.1. Renewals: Gene reported that the Resources for Users Committee recommended renewal of Statistical Universe, Gale InfoTrac, and Stat-USA. The Committee was still waiting for a price quote on Books in Print, so that renewal will need to be handled electronically. It was noted that in recognition of VIVA's budget situation, all of these vendors had maintained the previous year's price or requested very low price increases.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewals of InfoTrac, Statistical Universe and Stat-USA.
2. Statistics Workshop. Gene reported that the Committee recommended funds for a half-day workshop on statistics. The proposed title is: "An Informal Introduction to Statistics for VIVA Librarians" and the emphasis will be on practical applications, especially understanding and making use of VIVA product statistics. The Committee proposed convening the workshop on May 14, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. in Charlottesville. The goal of the workshop is to assist VIVA librarians in making more informed decisions and helping VIVA make the best use of our funds.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds to convene the Statistics Workshop, May 14, 2002 at UVA to assist our librarians using VIVA statistics.
IV. NEW BUSINESS
A. Communication. The Steering Committee discussed the need to communicate clearly with all audiences about the reasons for service cuts and the assumptions behind all service cuts.
ACTION: The Steering Committee agreed to provide clear communications for all VIVA librarians and staff, our campus administrators, faculty, students, and all other audiences regarding the basic assumptions and decisions made due to our budget shortfall.
ACTION: Ralph appointed an ad hoc task force on Communication, to be chaired by Gene Damon. Members will include Ralph, Connie, John U, and Kathy.
B. Next Meeting. The next meeting of the Steering Committee will be held on Thursday, June 6, 2002, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. at Christopher Newport University.
Contact: Kathy Perry (George Mason University), VIVA Director.
Last updated: 4/3/2002